Inbox tabs and category labels

Your messages are classified into categories such as Promotions, Social and Updates. You can choose to use categories as inbox tabs, and as labels. These categories make it easy to focus on messages that are important to you and read messages of the same type all at once.

New messages in category tabs

When you receive new mail, you’ll see an indicator in each tab that tells you how many new messages you’ve received since you last checked that tab. You’ll also see a few of the recent senders listed below the category name. You can see what's new at a glance and decide which emails you want to read.

Example

If you looked at your Promotions tab yesterday and then received eight promotional emails, you’ll see “8 new” next to the word “Promotions” when you check your Gmail today.

Unread count

The number next to Inbox on the left side of your Gmail tells you how many unread messages are in your Primary tab.

Move messages between tabs

If you see a message in your inbox that you want in a different tab, all you have to do is drag and drop it into the other tab. Another way to do this is to right-click a message while viewing your inbox.

After you move a message to a different tab, a message above your inbox will ask if you want to undo that action or choose to always put messages from that sender in the tab you chose.

Starred messages

Messages you mark with a star will also appear in your Primary tab so they are easier to keep track of.

Tip

Stars are a great way to keep track of messages you want to follow up on later. Unstar the message when you’re done. Learn more about starred messages.

By default, category labels are not visible on each message, but you can choose to show them in your message list. Category labels still won’t be visible when viewing your inbox tabs, but you might find this feature useful when searching or if you turned off tabs.

To search for messages within a category use the search operator category: followed by a category name.

Example: category:updates
Meaning: All messages in the Updates category.

Example: category:social Mindy
Meaning: Messages in the Social category that include “Mindy.”

You can combine the category search operator with other search operators. Learn more about advanced search.

Mobile

The same categories are available in Gmail's official mobile apps on Android 4.0+ devices as well as the iPhone and iPad. When you open the Gmail app, you’ll see your Primary category, with easy access to the other tabs.